A Northeast Ohio man apparently angry with his girlfriend gunned down two people outside a home and two more in a car Sunday morning, then chased down another victim in a shooting rampage that left eight dead, including the gunman, who was shot by police, authorities and witnesses said.

Two others were wounded. A child was among those shot, witnesses said, though police wouldn’t confirm that. The gunman killed seven people in three places, and he was shot elsewhere, Copley police Chief Michael Mier said.

A neighbor, Gilbert Elie, was getting ready for church when he heard gunshots. He went outside and found a woman in a driveway who’d been shot and a man shot near a garage, and a woman and girl in a vehicle who were wounded, he told The Associated Press. Then a woman came out of the house next door and tried to talk to Elie, he said, but her boyfriend followed and shot her. Elie ran for safety behind a truck and didn’t see what happened next.

The names and ages of the victims and the gunman weren’t being released until police could tell family members, some of whom are out of state, said Copley police Sgt. Eric Goodwin.

The son of one victim said a child was among those shot and that the argument started between the gunman and his girlfriend, according to neighbor Kim Dietz. The gunman chased the son, who escaped by wading through a swamp and made his way to Dietz’s home, she told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland.

Goodwin did not know the conditions of the wounded. Investigators were “still putting things together” as they work the crime scenes, he said.

He gave no more details, including how the shooter and victims were related, their names or what led to the argument.

“That’s still under investigation,” he said.

Jeff Kirby of nearby Norton said he was visiting his mother’s home a block from the shootings around 10:30 a.m. when he heard gunfire — about 15 shots with several pauses between them.

Kirby, 53, said the last gunfire he heard occurred about the same time he heard sirens in the neighborhood.

The neighborhood remained blocked off by police Sunday.

Copley Township is a town of about 14,000 people outside Akron, about 50miles west of Youngstown.

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